M.E.D. News

Core Abilities Critical Thinking Event

noreply@blogger.com (Dorene DeMars) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 21:33:00 +0000

Congratulations to Team Zerstorung Macht, made up of Ken, Jeff and Damon, winners of the 2009 Core Abilities Week Critical Thinking Event!

Competing against the clock as well as the other teams, three groups of “super-thinkers” embarked on a timed quest to solve various mathematical, physics, and logic problems. Provided with an initial clue and maps, each team raced around campus following clue to clue in a race to locate their "missing astronuclear physics final project". The first team to find their project and fully assemble it within a one hour time frame would win the race.

The challenge began at 11:00am sharp. Each team received their first clue and together went about solving it in order to be on their way.

The solution to each problem provided the location of the next clue. Each team raced the clock and the other teams, solving

problems and working their way from building to building until finally locating their final project.

Unfortunately, the final project had been dismantled!!! Each team needed to race back to the start point and "reassemble" their assignment. Not as easy as it looks!

However, each team prevailed and completed their assembly within the one hour time frame...

CONGRATULATIONS ALL CRITICAL THINKERS!!!

Fantasy Lights Sculpture

noreply@blogger.com (Dorene DeMars) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 20:39:00 +0000

Every year, in cooperation with Pierce County Parks & Recreation, Clover Park Technical College develops a lighted sculpture for the annual Fantasy Lights at Spanaway Park display. This year Clover Park Technical College students developed a Model-T Ford sculpture. Mechanical Engineering Design student Mike Myers created the original design, students in the Welding Technology Program fabricated the sculpture and it's supporting structure, and other students in the Automotive Program painted the completed structure.

Mike used AutoCAD to create the design on the right from a photo of an actual Model-T Ford. He plotted the design full size for use as a template. Using rebar and metal tubing, the Welding Technology students fabricated the Model-T sculpture, laying their pieces out on the plotted design.

Following fabrication, the Automotive Program painted the sculpture prior to delivery. Fantasy Lights features the Model-T sculpture as one of its brand new displays for 2008.

Click HERE for more information on attending the 2008 Fantasy Lights at Spanaway Park!

PHYS& 121

noreply@blogger.com (Dorene DeMars) — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 14:56:00 +0000

We've replaced MED 184 Physics with PHYS& 121, a new transferable class which includes a laboratory component. Dave DeBruyne teaches the academic portions of the class while we in Mechanical Engineering Design handle the labs.

Using funds provided by the Washington Stage Board for Community & Technical Colleges Allocation to Clover Park Technical College for the Transfer High Demand District Plan, we purchased lab equipment. At the right, students can be seen working on their first lab, an exploration of velocity and acceleration using a car and a ramp. Electronic photo gates handle the timing, allowing velocity to be calculated at different locations along the inclined plane. Additional calculations based on these velocities determine the acceleration.

Through a variety of laboratory activities, students expand upon the physics concepts presented to them in the academic portion of the class. PHYS& 121 will be open to all students campus wide. It also qualifies as 5 transferable credits in the sciences for those students interested in the AAS-T degrees.

Catching Up!

noreply@blogger.com (Dorene DeMars) — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 17:37:00 +0000

Apologies...it's been a long time since the last post and plenty has been going on around here!

For starters, these two guys, Steve(l) and Tim(r) graduated at the end of Spring Quarter! Both graduated with Pi Theta Kappa honors. Steve is the first student to earn the AAS-T option from the Mechanical Engineering Design Program.

CONGRATULATIONS STEVE AND TIM!!!

Summer Quarter Approaches!

noreply@blogger.com (Dorene DeMars) — Fri, 23 May 2008 15:00:00 +0000

Beginning June 24, 2008 Clover Park Technical College changes from a clock hour college to a credit hour college. This change provides our students with greater flexibility of class times and financial aid options. Many classes not previously available on a part time basis will now open up to members of the community.

Click the link below to peruse CPTC's Summer Quarter Offerings.

CPTC Summer Schedule

Screen Capture Technology

noreply@blogger.com (Dorene DeMars) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 22:10:00 +0000

I am interested in adding Blackboard elements to the Mechanical Engineering Design program. One way to do this might be by creating short videos like the one below and posting them to Blackboard for student access.

Viva la Spring Quarter!

noreply@blogger.com (Dorene DeMars) — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 18:04:00 +0000

Spring Quarter is now underway and promises to be a busy one. We've seen our numbers here expand as new students joined us over the last couple of quarters. To the left is a picture of Winter Quarter new students, Dan, Jeff and Ken. The picture on the right shows Spring Quarter new students Kevin and James.

We also welcome back returning students Brenden, Mike and Sam.

Other big news for the upcoming quarter will be the graduation of Steve and Tim (left). Both will graduate from Clover Park Technical College at the end of Spring Quarter. And graduating with honors at that. Steve and Tim have joined Phi Theta Kappa , the International Honor Society of the Two Year College.

We have several events and at least one field trip scheduled for Spring Quarter. On May 2, I will be representing Clover Park Technical College at the Women in Trades Fair at Seattle Center's Fisher Pavillion. I'll be highlighting CPTC's manufacturing, construction and transportation related programs.

On May 8, 2008 Clover Park Technical College will be holding it's annual Career Conference , a campus wide event open to the public showcasing out training programs.

And on June 12th, just before the end of Spring Quarter, the MED program will be taking a field trip to Hobart Bakery Systems , a manufacturer of commercial bakery equipment.

Check back often for updates about these events and news of others we may add to the schedule!

Field Trip Report

noreply@blogger.com (Dorene DeMars) — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 17:25:00 +0000

Friday saw the MED program visiting Utility Vault in Auburn, WA. Utility Vault is the leading manufacturer of precast concrete products in the utility, environmental and transportation markets. Known for their quality products and exceptional customer service, Utility Vault also showed us the side of the company committed to their employees.

The MED students were greeted by a team of four employees; Jeff Gallup, Mark Walker, Fred Perez and Steve Hiester. Each helped to provide an informative presentation about the design and production of their precast concrete products.

Jeff Gallup and the engineering staff provided each student with an example drawing package they would typically generate for one of their custom products. Jeff explained each page of the packet and the process going into its development. Through this example, the students saw exactly UV's product designs are best communicated to their production team and their customers. (Above: Susan Sopher and Tim Carroll review designs for a custom stormwater detention vault built by Utility Vault)

Following the design presentation, our Utility Vault hosts divided the class into three groups and escorted them through the entire production facility. Each group toured the production area, the mixing room, quality control, metal fabrication, inventory yard and more.

(Right: Under the guidance of Utility Vault's Sales and Marketing Associate, Fred Perez, student Steve Schauer feels the consistency of freshly poured concrete.)

(Below: Students tour the main production floor as Fred Perez explains the layout and work flow.)

Utility Vault went out of their way to make the MED students feel welcome and to share their expertise with us. A heartfelt thank you goes out to Jeff, Mark, Steve and Fred!

Fall Quarter!

noreply@blogger.com (Dorene DeMars) — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 21:32:00 +0000

After a nice long three week break, we returned to classes on September 24th. Fall sees a lot of changes brewing at CPTC. Our new Student Center celebrates its Grand Opening on October 23rd. The Bookstore, Expressions and the Floral Shop have already taken up occupancy. On October 11th the Okinawa Taiko Drummers performed for three different audiences in the lobby area, so already it's proving to be a key facility on our campus.

Closer to home, the Mechanical Engineering Design program enrolled 4 new students!

From the left are Dan, Kevin, Jason and Caitlin. All four graduated from high school in the spring and chose Clover Park Technical College as the next rung in their educational ladder. They have been excellent additions to the program. Each bring a unique and refreshing energy to the classroom and we are excited to have them. Welcome!!!

Stay tuned in the coming weeks as the M.E.D. program takes field trips to Pacific Reserach Labs on Vashon Island on October 26th and to Utility Vault in Auburn on November 30th. I'll try to post recaps of each visit soon after.

New Evening and Weekend Classes!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Dorene DeMars) — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 16:31:00 +0000

In an effort to better serve our community, Clover Park Community College is now offering night and weekend classes catering to working professionals. Many programs have developed Certificate and A.A.T. Degree options obtainable by taking night and weekend courses. Among the programs now offering night options are Automotive, Aviation, Business, Design, Early Care, Health, Manufacturing and Retail Sales.

In addition, M.E.D.'s sister program Architectural Engineering Design, will offer their A.A.T. Degree program (ARC 100) in the evenings. ARC 100 will meet from 5:30 - 9:30 Monday through Friday. A Civil Engineering Design program will be offered as well, meeting from 5:30 - 9:30 M-W-F and 6:00 - 9:00 on Tuesday and Thursday.

If you're interested in any of the above options, please visit the college website linked to the left, or go directly to the Fall Schedule.

Happy Graduations!

noreply@blogger.com (Dorene DeMars) — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 22:18:00 +0000

Congratulations to Bruce Baker! A graduate with honers of the M.E.D. program at the end of Winter Quarter, he participated in CPTC's Graduation Ceremony on June 15th.

Tim Carroll also participated, recieving his Welding Certificate. This, only a couple of days after graduating from high school! Way to go, Tim...it's also great to have you back. We're glad you're continuing your education with CPTC's Mechanical Engineering Design program.

Belated Career Conference Recap...

noreply@blogger.com (Dorene DeMars) — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 21:53:00 +0000

It's been a busy spring and summer! We're currently trying to pack eleven weeks of course work into a nine week quarter. The students are busier than ever, but I felt I should produce a blog update before too much more time passed by!

We successfully participated in CPTC's Career Conference on May 10th, recieving over 100 guests through the course of the day. All M.E.D. the students participated, either by greeting guests at the classroom door or through classroom demonstrations. Tracy and Carrie are seen here ready to greet guests at the door.

Steve and Tim hold court at the left with a group of guests interested in AutoCAD and other aspects of Mechanical Engineering Design.

In addition to being ready for classroom demonstrations, one group of students were assigned the task of working with Manufacturing Technologies students to document the building of a Stirling Engine. M.E.D. students created detail and assembly drawings while the Manufacturing Technologies students created a physical working model. Guests arriving at the M.E.D. viewed the Stirling Engine prints, then headed to Building 25 to see the working model seen below. This project was the perfect collaboration between the programs. Hopefully only the first of many more to come!

Who Says Engineering Types Can't Be Creative?

noreply@blogger.com (Dorene DeMars) — Thu, 03 May 2007 18:03:00 +0000

In anticipation of our Career Conference, I assigned a group of the students the task of redecorating the display window at the east end of Building 19. I left the concept and design up to them; my only requirement was

that it be completed by today (May 3rd).

Behold! Their completed assignment!

This is one of several "surprise" assignments I've sprung on the class this quarter. It's a very "real world" example of how the best planned schedules have to be altered to accommodate special projects. A customer with a rush job, who is willing to pay a premium price, will often be indulged. As designers and drafters, we must be able to complete these new tasks with minimal impact to our other schedules. This group has done an excellent job of accomplishing just that.

Congratulations Anthony, Brenden, Carrie, Tim and Tracy!

Warmoth Guitars: Field Trip Report

noreply@blogger.com (Dorene DeMars) — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 19:01:00 +0000

A BIG thank you to Rod Rood at Warmoth Guitars for touring the M.E.D. program through their facility!

Warmoth Guitars produces high quality aftermarket bodies and necks for electric guitars. All their products are machine using CNC milling technology driven by Mastercam. As a class, we were lucky enough to observe both the computer simulation of a guitar body being machined and an actual CNC machining run of one of their guitar bodies.

In addition, the class toured the fret installation, sanding and finishing areas. Rod briefed us on their processes from acceptance of the raw materials, in this case different types of woods, to the finished product. An interesting opportunity for everyone from technical individuals to music enthusiasts!

Thanks again, Rod!

Off and Running in the New Year...

noreply@blogger.com (Dorene DeMars) — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 14:53:00 +0000

Week 4 of Winter Quarter 2007! After a wacky few weeks, we seem to be in full swing. Three snow delay days, one snow cancellation day and one holiday all consecutively made getting into a routine dificult. But everyone seems to be off to a good start...In the coming weeks, we have two field trips. Our first is on Friday, February 2nd to Warmoth Guitars in Puyallup. Warmoth uses CNC machining technology to manufacture their beautiful electric guitar bodies and necks. We'll get to see this process in action, ask questions of the designers and maybe even learn a thing or two!

MED 158 Beginning AutoCAD - after learning to create lines, circles and other objects, MED 158 students have progressed to layers. The student drawing above shows different types of drawing entities in different colors (i.e. object lines, hidden lines, center lines, etc.) Each of these types of objects lie on their own "layer" and can be assigned separate properties such as color, linetype and lineweight.

If certain layers were to be "turned off", signifying they are not to be displayed, you would still be able to view the remaining layers. To the left, is the same drawing with the center and hidden layers turned off. The object lines of the part are still very visible. Layers are a great tool for drawing and plot management.

noreply@blogger.com (Dorene DeMars) — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 18:37:00 +0000

1st Quarter student, Steve smiles while contently working on MED 149 exercises. Isn't Steve starting to look like a real drafter?

Developments

noreply@blogger.com (Dorene DeMars) — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 17:25:00 +0000

In Descriptive Geometry II we work through a series of concepts to learn how to find the "developments" and "intersections" of different surfaces and solids. A "development" is a flat representation of a three dimensional solid that when folded together portrays the solid object. Developments are especially useful for design sheet metal ducting. Cardboard box manufacturers will also use developments to determine the flat patterns for their specialty boxes.

The example above shows a pyramid shaped greeting card. When the seam is "cut", the flat representation of the greeting card is seen. MED 149 teaches us how to create these flat representations through projection methods.

The figure shown comes directly from one our MED 149 problems. We are asked to draw the given views of the form and develop the lateral surfaces.

The given views, a circle in the top view and a triangle with a radial cut removed in the front view are drawn. The circle in the top view is divided into 24 equal divisions. Construction lines are then projected down into the front view.

The line from the point of the cone (triangle) to point 1 is the ONLY true length line available to us. Fortunately this is all we need to determine the radius of our development. This radius can be seen in development view, and will represent the object line except where the cutout occurs. Small radial marks representing the distance between the equal divisions in the top view are transferred to the development view to located their corresponding points.

While not shown, lines from the intersection points of the radial cut at 7, 8, 9, and 9a would be projected across the front view. Where they intersect the true length line formed by point 1 and the point of the cone gives us the true length for each of these segments. This information can be transferred to the development, as shown using circles whose radii represent those lengths. Connecting the points from the cutout with an irregular curve or in CAD, a spline, shows us the flat representation of the cutout.

This is a very quick and dirty explanation for this development, but hopefully it will give you a bit of an idea for how it's created. We'll definitely be going over this information more thoroughly during Winter quarter.

Freebies!

noreply@blogger.com (Dorene DeMars) — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 20:04:00 +0000

New Online Graph Paper link added! This includes among others, cartesian, isometric and polar options. Your graph paper can be customized for type, units, paper size and grid size. Have fun!

noreply@blogger.com (Dorene DeMars) — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 04:58:00 +0000

MUSEUM OF FLIGHT

From Left to Right: Steve, Carrie, Bruce and Anna

MUSEUM OF FLIGHT: Da Vinci Exhibit

On Friday, November 17th the Mechanical Engineering Design class travelled to Boeing Field and the Museum of Flight to take in the Da Vinci Exhibit. As an inventor and artist, Leonardo Da Vinci's drawings were precursors to the more formalized drawings and designs we create today. M.E.D. students took the opportunity to see some of Da
Vinci's designs brought to life by a group of Italian artisans. Among the excellent examples of devices still in use today were the cam, the Archimedes Screw, and a device used to repel the ladders of invading armies.

In addition, the Museum of Flight itself provides fine examples of more contemporary mechanical designs. Much of Boeing's history is displayed in the Red Barn, including some of the original drafting equipment as well as the original drafting loft as seen here (notice the M.E.D. students critically examining aircraft drawings, checking for errors and inconsistencies.).

As we move forward, expect to take more field trips. There are already two tentatively scheduled for Winter Quarter-- Warmoth Guitars and Composite Solutions.

LAUNCH!

noreply@blogger.com (Dorene DeMars) — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 01:26:00 +0000

Welcome to M.E.D. News, the blog for and about the Mechanical Engineering Design Program at Clover Park Technical College. Check back regularly for news and announcements about the latest happenings.